Riders faced a cold and windy start to the 2009 Tour de Beauce today, and the wind proved to be a factor in the 11 man breakaway which took four and a half minutes out of the peloton, with Danilo Wyss (BMC) winning the small group sprint for the stage victory and the Yellow Jersey. Ryan Roth (Planet Energy) was the top Canadian finisher, in third behind Darren Lill (Team Type 1). BMC took all four Jerseys - Yellow and Points for Wyss, Climber and Young Rider for Chad Beyer.

The 165 km Lac Etchemin stage has often seen a small group break away from the field and stay away, usually because the field allows the gap to get too large to chase down by the finish. This year was a little different, with multiple efforts in the first 50 kilometres to form a lead group chased down, usually by either BMC or Garmin because the mix wasn't to their liking.

Finally, a group of nine broke clear - Roth, Ben Day and Bernard Sulzberger (Fly V Australia), Derrick Saint-John (Garneau), Guy East (Trek), Scott Zwizanski (Kelly Benefit), Christopher Jones (Team Type 1), Tom Southam (Rapha Condor) and Chad Beyer (BMC). When Lill attacked out of the peloton to bridge up at a 20 second gap, Wyss jumped on his wheel.

"My manager had told me to be conservative, but to watch for a big group getting away," explained Wyss. "I saw Lill go, and he is a very strong contender for the GC, so I thought this was a good move to j oin."

"In that size of group there are always guys not wanting to work, and I was one of them," admitted Roth. "I'm not really considering myself a GC rider for this race, so i wasn't doing too much in the break."

The 11 included all the main teams except Garmin and Colombia, and those two chased hard for over 20 kilometres, keeping the gap to less than a minute. However, Garmin had three or four riders at the front, with Colombia contributing only one and no one else participating, so the team pulled the plug, and the gap began to grow.

By the 100 kilometre mark the time difference was up to two minutes, and the front group was working smoothly together. The leaders were helped by attacks in the peloton over the second KoM climb that literally shattered the field.

A small chase group at the front pulled back to within 90 seconds of the leaders, but didn't have the strength on the flats and into the wind to close the difference. Behind, a main group of 25 riders clawed them back, and then smaller groups also gradually pulled themselves back up to reform the peloton. While this happened, the gap grew again.

These five might have gotten somewhere, except that the two Colombian riders shredded the group on the climb and ended up chasing on their own, while the other three were reabsorbed by the field.

Henao and Atapuma were sitting two minutes back of the leaders with ten kilometres to go, while the peloton was over three minutes and fading. At the front, everyone was getting ready for the knives to come out, as the marriage of convenience was about to be dissolved.

It was on the final steep climb, five kilometres from the finish that the break shattered, with only six riders still in contention the descent into Lac Etchemin - Wyss, Lill, Roth, Day, Zwizanski and Southam Wyss went to the front with 200 metres to go and easily held off the others, to coast across the line with his arms in the air.

"The last steep climb, over the top, there was a headwind, and that helped me stay with the front part of the break," explained Roth. "Darren Lill started attacking, then Ben Day and the British rider [Southam]. They were just going for it, and I was just doing my best not to lose too much time, so that I could maybe catch back on over the top of the climb. I figured in the finish that the BMC guy [Wyss] was the wheel to be on, and that's where I was, but he was just too fast."

Beyer and East came in 48 seconds later, followed by Sulzberger at 1:12 and the remainder of the break at 1:21, having been caught by the two Colombians. The field rolled in four minutes and 32 seconds down on Wyss.

Wyss was asked what the team plan is for stage 2, with all four jerseys in their hands. "That's a secret, you'll have to wait until tomorrow," he laughed.

Tomorrow is a brand new stage from everyone - a big loop that starts and finishes at Thetford Mines, to the west of St-Georges. No one is quite sure what to expect - including the weather (it started raining locally about two hours ago). The first half of the circuit is quite hilly, according to one local, but the second half, which goes around the end of Lac St Francois is flatter, and usually very windy. We could see another sizable break go off like today, or the whole race could stay together.